The Cloud in 2019: Predictions from KCOM

KCOM reveals its predictions for the future of cloud

Over the last year, we’ve seen phenomenal changes in virtually every aspect of the IT and communications sectors. From ongoing consolidation across the board to the ever-accelerating nature of digital transformation projects, it seems that everyone has their eyes set firmly on the future. The question is, what does that future hold?

With 2019 just around the corner, systems integration company KCOM have begun to discuss their predictions for the trends we’ll see in the year ahead. Let’s look at just some of the suggestions presented by Stephen Long, the EVP for Enterprise at KCOM.

Core Competencies and Contact Centres

As today’s communication and IT stacks become increasingly complex, many companies have found themselves spending more time on their digital transformation strategy, and less time serving their customers. According to Stephen Long, in 2019, organisations will begin to return to the core competencies responsible for driving revenue, which means that managed service providers will need to take the reins for networking and communications solutions.

Stephen Long

Along with the rise of managed services, Long also believes that contact centres will begin to move more aggressively towards the cloud to serve the complex demands of today’s consumers. As the popularity of omnichannel communication continues to grow, cloud will be the only real way for companies to achieve the agility and flexibility that they need to serve their customers. Long believes that soon, it will be possible to architect the entire contact centre as part of a SaaS solution.

Already, vendors like Amazon are working on their “pay per call minute” software for the UK, which will help to streamline and accelerate the move to cloud. Today’s companies are increasingly ignoring high-cost hardware investments in favour of a contact centre that’s versatile, and scalable. The cloud contact centre offers flexibility, the potential to incorporate innovations (like machine learning), and the option to integrate with existing tools like CRM systems.

Machine Learning and Serverless Performance

Speaking of artificial intelligence, Long also believes that we’re heading towards a future where machines will manage the cloud on behalf of businesses. There’s been a significant change in the cloud market towards tools that can give business leaders more insight into the end-to-end operations of their environment. Machine learning strategies will be able to predict changes in cloud usage, reduce the risk of failures, and even eliminate problems before they can grow out of hand.

Finally, according to KCOM, servers are on their way out in 2019. As new solutions are designed in the cloud to perform effectively without servers, businesses are beginning to embrace the benefits of a more streamlined infrastructure. Serverless design patterns are bound to gain popularity in 2019 as major cloud providers continue to offer serverless runtimes that eliminate the need to provision virtual or physical servers for the modern company. The serverless solution gives today’s organisations the option to add new services or change their environment rapidly, which is crucial in today’s agile environment.

KCOM has seen an approximately 200% increase in the use of serverless architecture per quarter over 2018.